Training Pre Season

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Saintbloke

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I'm not buying that the 26YO who has played plenty of VFL has moved past the 24YO who has not played a VFL game since 2012. Not in the selectors eyes anyway.
I thought a few times over the last two seasons, that Newnes needed a trip to the VFL to sharpen up like some of our highly fancied players who were just doing enough and no more, just lucky that few at Sandy put their hands up for a senior game this season. Might be a bit more pressure in 2018. I think Savage can be a good swing player going on the way he finished the season.
 
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Won't be a popular comment, but on the basis of current impact rather than potential GOATness I think you have to add Acres to the list of weakest links.

Then in terms of most likely to miss games I hope you will have to consider Steele, Dunstan, Armo and Stevens as unless they can genuinely fill a role other than pure Inside Mid I'm hoping only two of them play - in that case there's likely to be a fair amount of rotation because of the standard of the replacements.....
I'm not adding Steele, he's our number one contested ball winner.
I'm not adding Armitage, he's our number one clearance player ( if fit ).
But i guess then i'm left with Dunstan and Stevens who don't win many clearances or much contested ball.
 

pebblesofsand

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Newnes has everything you can ask for in a footy player apart from the ability to kick the footy to a team mate consistently
Yep - has the propensity to bomb long without really looking and to make poor decisions which end up killing us on the turnover. Not what you need coming out of defence.

And that's the reason why Newnes, Webster and Savage are vulnerable to a younger player with better kicking and decision making skills making a impact early in the season.

Sinclair looks like he's put his hand up to claim one wing and I'd expect one of Clark, Coffield, White or Phillips to be in the mix for a spot early in the season.

And I've got to say that all of those "appear" to have the skills to be starting 22 next year.

Youngsters putting pressure on players who were starting 22 last year and possibly think they are a walk up start this year - effing fantastic news for the club.
 

gringo2011

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Very much disagree with this. Moved out of the backline about 3 years ago and has comfortably played his best footy on the wing since, in particular last year and the first 2/3 of this season.

2014 was the last year he played down back and he was nothing special there, averaging just 20 disposals per game and even having considerably less rebound-50's than he had from the wing this year.
I love Newnes but I don't think we can play him and Sinclair together and improve. We need a bit of zip and spread that neither has a lot of. Webster is a bit quicker and adds an element. I think Newness stays in the team because he's just a very good all rounder with few weak links but maybe he goes onto a forward flank or a Mav like role? Anyway the fact that it's getting hard to fit players of that quality in the team is a good sign. I think the players that are still likely to struggle to hold spots on last years form are Lonie, Mav, Dunstan, Steele, Stevens and Acres. All look like they could be cementing a spot next year.
 

Human Person

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Yep - has the propensity to bomb long without really looking and to make poor decisions which end up killing us on the turnover. Not what you need coming out of defence.

And that's the reason why Newnes, Webster and Savage are vulnerable to a younger player with better kicking and decision making skills making a impact early in the season.

Sinclair looks like he's put his hand up to claim one wing and I'd expect one of Clark, Coffield, White or Phillips to be in the mix for a spot early in the season.

And I've got to say that all of those "appear" to have the skills to be starting 22 next year.

Youngsters putting pressure on players who were starting 22 last year and possibly think they are a walk up start this year - effing fantastic news for the club.
I could be wrong but I think Newnes was our top player for meters gained. And I can’t remember him turning it over in dangerous positions too often. He occasionally took a risky kick into the middle (as Richo said he wanted them to do) that didn’t come off, but it was away from immediate danger.

And despite Phillips having a great tank, he didn’t do much in the vfl last year to show that he’d be putting pressure on the best 22 come round 1.
 

aussierulesrules

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I could be wrong but I think Newnes was our top player for meters gained.
Just looked that up a couple of hours ago and he was behind just Robbo and Joey for us per game last season and in the top 30 in the comp (431m per game), and if you excluded the game where he only played 16%, before getting concussed, he would have been closer to top 20.

The only issue I have with him is some of his vision/decision-making going inside 50. Some of those ones this year where he kicked it into the pocket when he had someone on their own streaming into the goalsquare, etc were quite mind-boggling and unlike him.
 
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I could be wrong but I think Newnes was our top player for meters gained. And I can’t remember him turning it over in dangerous positions too often. He occasionally took a risky kick into the middle (as Richo said he wanted them to do) that didn’t come off, but it was away from immediate danger.

And despite Phillips having a great tank, he didn’t do much in the vfl last year to show that he’d be putting pressure on the best 22 come round 1.
When he plays every single week for 3 years, there is something that the coaches like about him.
 

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st_trav_ofWA

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Well that's a year away.
So Blake has a year to prove he is a goat, and not a sacrificial lamb.
i hope we are past this want of Gaff by mid next year ... Gaff is an over priced over rated player .. i would rather WCE keep him so he can get his 1 contested possesion and 1/2 contested mark a week in their soft midfield
 
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i hope we are past this want of Gaff by mid next year ... Gaff is an over priced over rated player .. i would rather WCE keep him so he can get his 1 contested possesion and 1/2 contested mark a week in their soft midfield
i agree, i'd much rather that Coffield work out to be a gun mid and not trade a fortune for someone ordinary.
BUT
While Gaff has had a 1 CP game , he's also had a 17 this year.
 

aussierulesrules

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The wings sure are going to be interesting next year and beyond.

We tried something very different in the last 3 weeks of the season with Stuv spending basically a whole game there in R22, and Seb spending a heap of time there in those last 3 games, and then there's Newnes and Sincs who played there the most this year, then you'd hope that Acres would be absolutely smashing down the door to get more of a go there, and fingers crossed Freeman becomes a strong option there, and then it's pretty clear that Clark is going to start on the outside, until he's stronger, and Coffield probably will too. Then you've got Billings and Gresh who can easily have spells there and others like Webster, Robbo and Savage!

So there could conceivably be as many as 13 in the 22 who could rotate through the wing, and that's before we even get to the likes of Armo, Dunstan, Koby and Steele who occasionally line up there, when the centre square is occupied by others.

And we think we have a lot of options for the HBF's! The wings could be a seriously revolving door.
 

austinnn

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The wings sure are going to be interesting next year and beyond.

We tried something very different in the last 3 weeks of the season with Stuv spending basically a whole game there in R22, and Seb spending a heap of time there in those last 3 games, and then there's Newnes and Sincs who played there the most this year, then you'd hope that Acres would be absolutely smashing down the door to get more of a go there, and fingers crossed Freeman becomes a strong option there, and then it's pretty clear that Clark is going to start on the outside, until he's stronger, and Coffield probably will too. Then you've got Billings and Gresh who can easily have spells there and others like Webster, Robbo and Savage!

So there could conceivably be as many as 13 in the 22 who could rotate through the wing, and that's before we even get to the likes of Armo, Dunstan, Koby and Steele who occasionally line up there, when the centre square is occupied by others.

And we think we have a lot of options for the HBF's! The wings could be a seriously revolving door.

Question for you training spies: how involved is Freeman with the main group? Are there any players who are doing individual stuff apart from Paddy?
 
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i hope we are past this want of Gaff by mid next year ... Gaff is an over priced over rated player .. i would rather WCE keep him so he can get his 1 contested possesion and 1/2 contested mark a week in their soft midfield
Agreed, I know it’s the rosy glow of unseen draftees but we’ve potentially just drafted 4 guys who could play his position. It doesn’t feel like a position of need anymore - just a matter of who puts their hand up.

It’s disastrous for our trade thread, but I can’t see anyone beyond Sloane and hall that I’d want. Both could add another burst player through the middle and that’s all we’re lacking if potentials are fulfilled.
 
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The wings sure are going to be interesting next year and beyond.

We tried something very different in the last 3 weeks of the season with Stuv spending basically a whole game there in R22, and Seb spending a heap of time there in those last 3 games, and then there's Newnes and Sincs who played there the most this year, then you'd hope that Acres would be absolutely smashing down the door to get more of a go there, and fingers crossed Freeman becomes a strong option there, and then it's pretty clear that Clark is going to start on the outside, until he's stronger, and Coffield probably will too. Then you've got Billings and Gresh who can easily have spells there and others like Webster, Robbo and Savage!

So there could conceivably be as many as 13 in the 22 who could rotate through the wing, and that's before we even get to the likes of Armo, Dunstan, Koby and Steele who occasionally line up there, when the centre square is occupied by others.

And we think we have a lot of options for the HBF's! The wings could be a seriously revolving door.
If we get enough players who are versatile enough it might totally change the way we think about inside / outside.
 

BrutThough

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Newnes is a good, consistent player which every team needs and is really important to our team structure/leadership. But lets not pretend he had a great year - overall his year was average. He had some good games but overall was fairly average and didn't have the same impact that he has had in previous season.

“This season, his influence on games wasn’t where he and the club would like it to be, but it wasn’t through a lack of commitment to his footy." - Alan Richardson, 29/9/17
 

Nutsngum

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I really hope playfair is as good an aquisition as I expect him to be. Sydney has been probably the no1 defensive team over the last decade and if he can bring that kind of game to our boys we should be ripping the ball out of the backline with abandon.
 

StCicatriz

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I really hope playfair is as good an aquisition as I expect him to be. Sydney has been probably the no1 defensive team over the last decade and if he can bring that kind of game to our boys we should be ripping the ball out of the backline with abandon.
he seems like a really good communicator, **** even i could understand what he was on about
 

austinnn

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It's mad, I thought he was still a player until he joined us, then I found out he'd retired after a reasonably short career years ago! Made me realise how old I am and how lucky we were that players like Roo and Joey played with us for so many years. (By time he was drafted Roo and Joey had been saints for 3 and 2 years respectively!)
 
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